Sorority women across campus are competing for the crown and title of Delta Queen, a competition recently created by Delta Tau Delta (DTD), in hopes of finding a sweetheart for their fraternity. Organizations participating include: Alpha Omicron Pi (AOPi), Alpha Sigma Tau (AST), Alpha Xi Delta (AXiD), Delta Phi Epsilon (DPhiE), Phi Sigma Sigma (PhiSig), and Zeta Tau Alpha (ZTA).
Delta Tau Delta’s Philanthropy Chairman Anthony Serrantonio, a senior communication major, is responsible for planning the event. He said a lot of other DTD chapters host Delta Queen, but they do it somewhat differently. Serrantonio wanted to do something different on campus that is not your typical philanthropy event.
“We wanted to make it an event that would raise a lot of money, but would also be fun for the people involved,” Serrantonio said.
The Delta Queen receives a crown and sash, $100 spa gift card, a donation to their philanthropy, DTD chapter letters, DTD rush t-shirts, and a contestant t-shirt. The Delta Queen also becomes the sweetheart of the fraternity.
“Delta Tau Delta raised over $300 just in the last week, and the fraternity expects to raise more in the coming weeks up until the actual pageant event in February,” said Stuart Rosenberg, an associate professor of management and DTD’s advisor.
The competition has three rounds, beginning Dec. 1 and ending Feb. 17, 2015. The first round, which takes place between Dec. 1 and Dec. 19, involves each sorority raising money for DTD’s national philanthropy, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). The fraternity created a team page for each sorority on the JDRF website to make collecting donations easier. There is no required fundraising minimum. There will also be a penny war competition on Dec. 10, taking place in the Rebecca Strafford Student Center (RSSC). The money raised by each sorority in the penny war competition will go towards their total amount fundraised. Fundraising efforts can take place through Feb. 17. Whichever organization has the highest amount in donations is awarded more points in the competition.
The top five sororities will then move on and complete a photo shoot, hosted by the fraternity. Each sorority is required to nominate one member to represent their organization in the fight for Delta Queen. Each participating sister must be junior standing or younger, so the future Delta Tau Delta sweetheart will be present next year. After the photo shoot, contestants post their headshot on Facebook and Instagram on Dec. 15. They then have 24 hours to get as many likes as possible. For every like, each contestant is awarded one point. This concludes round one.
Round two will be taking place Feb. 9-13. On Feb. 9, each contestant must create a social media advertisement used to promote the event. It will then be posted to Facebook and Instagram, and within 24 hours, achieve as many likes as possible. One point is awarded per like.
On Feb. 10, each contestant will be given a minimum of 30 tickets to the final event and asked to sell them. The goal is to sell as many tickets as possible, and points will be awarded on a first, second, and third place basis. On Feb. 11, a dine-and-donate event will be held at a local restaurant. Contestants will be given flyers to hand out. The sororities with the highest attendance will be awarded points on a first, second, and third place basis.
On Feb. 12, DTD will host a banner-judging contest. With the help of their chapter, each contestant will create a Delta Queen banner, promoting the crowning and herself. The banners will be judged by University faculty.
Concluding round two will be a Twitter scavenger hunt, where the fraternity will tweet out clues from their account (@MonmouthDelts). With the help of their chapter, contestants can respond with the task completed. Points will be awarded to whichever organization is first to complete the task.
The third and final round of Delta Queen is set to take place on Feb. 17, 2015. The event will be held at Pollak Theatre at 10 pm. Competitions at the event are to include lip sync, personality walk, “minute to win it” games, a Twitter contest, and the announcing of who fundraised the most. After the points from all three rounds are totaled, a winner will be crowned.
Jenna Ferraro, a senior criminal justice major and sister of AST, commented, “We wanted to participate in Delta Queen to get more involved with philanthropy, as it’s one of our core values. We also wanted to show support for another organization in the Greek community.”
As of Tuesday, Dec. 9, the current standings are AXiD in first place, AST in second, DPhiE in third, ZTA in fourth, and AOPi in fifth.
